


Jack Frozen

by Prince_Pondincherry



Category: Frozen (2013), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Friendship, Fun, Gen, No Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-14 22:44:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16050092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prince_Pondincherry/pseuds/Prince_Pondincherry
Summary: When I watched the beginning of Frozen, I thought that Elsa really needed a friend, and who better than the incarnation of fun, who also happens to have ice powers? This is that story.





	1. The Cold Front

Jack Frost floated on the wind, coming to the small kingdom of Arendelle and bringing winter with him. "Looks like a nice place," he thought. He admired the castle dramatically situated in the waters of the fjord and connected to the land by stone bridges. The imposing mountains framed the rest of the city. "Nice, but they'll look even better with a dusting of snow." Calling the wind, Jack let out a whoop and rode it into the city. As he passed people by, he nipped them on the nose with his tiny snowballs, spreading his own brand of wintry cheer. Unfortunately, nobody believed in Jack, so he was invisible, but people could notice the powers he brought with him. Behind Jack, the cloud front he had ridden in on covered the kingdom, bringing the first snowfall of the year.

Jack completed a round of the city. "Now let's see who lives in that castle." He lightly floated over on the breeze. Oddly, the gates were tightly shut and Jack couldn't see anybody there. "Shouldn't a castle have servants and guards, not to mention royalty?" He wondered. Then he heard a little girl singing. Floating over a wall into another courtyard, he heard the singing coming down a long hallway. Curious, he floated down the hallway for several meters before landing lightly and continuing on foot. As he rounded a corner, he saw a small girl with strawberry blonde hair singing in front of a door.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

"Hmm. Sounds fun to me," Jack commented quietly. When there was no response from inside the room, the girl stopped singing, and a slight frown appeared on her face. 

"Elsa, I'm going to go outside and play in the snow, if you want to come." Then, the little girl scampered outside into the lightly falling snow. Jack followed. Smiling, he pointed at a clump of snow with his staff. With a whirl of magic, it formed into three clumps of snow that stacked neatly into a snowman. The little girl gave a cry of surprised delight. "Where'd you come from, snowman? But you still need arms and a face!" She scampered around the courtyard and found two slightly crooked sticks for arms and some pebbles for his mouth. "But what should your eyes be?" Jack smiled as he found the perfect scraps of wood on a wood pile. Knocking them into the air with his staff, he floated them over to the little girl, who grabbed them from the breeze and stuck them on the snowman's face. "Perfect," she said, and took a long look at the snowman. Then, she abruptly turned and darted back into the castle. A little amused, Jack followed her in.

-

Elsa sat sadly in her room. She wanted to build a snowman with Anna, she really did. Even just seeing her again would be nice, but it was too dangerous. She couldn't risk hurting her again. 

She startled as Anna knocked on her door. Back from playing already? That was fast! "Elsa, Elsa, you won't believe it! I went outside in the snow, and a snowman made himself! I didn't even touch him, the snow just rolled up into a ball by itself, and then it stacked into a snowman! Well, I did get the arms and the mouth and the eyes."

Elsa startled. "What? But I didn't..." Then she caught herself. Anna couldn't know. "Go get Mama and Papa."

Their parents were busy with standard king and queen business, but they came running as soon as Anna mentioned the magical creation of a snowman. "Anna, go to your room," the queen commanded. Anna complained a little but obeyed.

When they got to Elsa's room, the king and queen entered. "Elsa, you know why you can't make a snowman for your sister," the king began.

"But I didn't, honest! I only just found out when Anna came and told me!"

A look of concern crossed the king's face. "Oh, Elsa, we knew you were having trouble controlling it, but this is way too much." Unseen, Jack watched in confusion. They thought  _she_ made the snowman? How did that make any sense?

"But I didn't do it! Maybe I can't stop it, but I always know what I'm doing!" Elsa protested. Jack decided to try an experiment. With a small bit of his power, he made a snowball, which he then threw at Elsa. It blew up in a poof of white powder when it hit her shoulder. "That wasn't me! Why would I hit myself?"

Jack smiled. "That's a good question, Elsa. Why are you hitting yourself?" He made five more snowballs and threw them at her, knocking her off her feet into a light carpet of snow he pulled in through the window. With one of his snowballs, Jack lightly hit Elsa on the face with his trademarked "nip you on the nose" trick. All this was done so that, with the open window and the way the snowballs disintegrated on impact, they could theoretically rationalize it away as a trick of the weather. Of course, that didn't work, as they already had a reason to believe it was magic.

"Elsa, you stop that right this instant," the queen said. To her surprise, Elsa sat up smiling and said cheerily,

"But I'm not doing it, Mama. Look, I've still got my gloves on." The king scowled with worry. He wanted to believe his daughter, and she did seem to be telling the truth, but how else could they account for the magical snowman? There was no way Anna would have made that up.

"Well, I guess there doesn't seem to be any immediate danger, so we'll just go see the trolls next time it's convenient and see if they can figure it out." He hugged his daughter. "I love you, my little Elsa, and I wish you didn't have to stay here."

"Me too, daddy."

-

Jack was a mischievous ice spirit, but he didn't want to get a little kid in trouble, so he didn't make any more overt displays of magic in the castle. He was still curious why they thought Elsa made the snowman, so he didn't wander too far. After a few days, the king and queen were able to postpone their royal business and head out into the forest. Once Jack saw that they seemed to be following the bottom of a narrow valley, he floated ahead on the breeze. The king had mentioned trolls, which certainly sounded magical; maybe they would be able to see him. Jack examined the valley for anything that would indicate where they were going. He noticed a small, circular clearing filled with rocks partway up the hills and swooped down to investigate. He came to a landing, musing, "Hmm, this looks like a promising place for a meeting." On a whim, he tapped one of the rocks on the ground with the base of his staff. Suddenly, the rocks in the clearing started moving. They shook and rolled a couple feet before suddenly springing open into chubby little stone people. "You certainly look magic," Jack muttered quietly. Out loud, he said, "I take it you are the trolls?"

"What of it?" A gnarly old troll demanded.

"Who are you?" Asked a female troll.

"Yes! Someone else who can see me! Of course, still not people..."

"What do you mean we aren't people?"

"Sure, you can talk and all, but magical creatures aren't exactly...human."

"So?" Pouted a small troll. Jack looked at the pudgy face of the troll child trying to look angry, and, struck by a mischievous impulse, he formed a snowball and hit the troll in the face with it.

"What's with the dour face? Let's see a smile!" The troll child fell to the ground with a silly smile on her face.

"You leave the child alone, you rascal!" Said another troll, waving her finger scoldingly. Jack dodged a thrown snowball, laughing merrily.

"Ho ho! Someone's ready to play!" With a twirl of his staff, he formed four snowballs on the ground. He kicked them into the air and knocked them forward with the top of his staff, sending the troll into a heap.

This kicked off a rambunctious snowball fight that lasted for a few minutes until a clearly venerable, old troll rolled in and unrolled himself, pulling a staff from what appeared to be nowhere. "What's going on here?" he demanded. The trolls dropped their snowballs and quieted into a hush as they became aware of his presence. Belatedly, Jack noticed everyone was quiet and calmed down, so he looked around for the source of the disturbance. "Jack Frost. What are you doing here, you rascal? Get out of here! I'll stand for none of your mischief-raising!"

"Hey, you know who I am! Wait, what? What do mean, mischief-raising?"

"I hear you've been the record holder on the naughty list for the past decade. Now get out before you rub off on the little ones!"

"I don't cause mischief! I just play around a bit!"

"Shoo!"

“As you wish.” With a mocking smile, Jack gave a little bow before lifting his staff into the sky and letting the wind blow him over the tops of the nearby evergreens and out of the trolls' sight.

-

The king and queen entered the clearing along with little Elsa. "Oh, no! Has there been another incident? Who was hurt?" The elderly troll leader asked.

"No, nobody's hurt, nothing like that," the king reassured him. "We think Elsa might be using her powers without trying to."

The troll looked unimpressed. "Haven't we discussed this before?"

The king was momentarily confused. "What? Oh, no, I don't mean she's lost her self-control. Elsa's been a good girl and hasn't tried to use her powers since the accident. The problem is, a few days ago Elsa used her powers without even realizing it! She tells me that she can normally tell when she is using her powers, but this time she couldn't tell even though she made a snowman right in front of her sister! And Anna was playing outside, so Elsa couldn't even see her!"

"Not only that," the queen continued, "but when we went to confront Elsa about it, she started getting hit by snowballs! Could her power be turning against her?"

The troll leader groaned softly. "This is not a problem of Elsa or her powers. A mischievous winter spirit has entered Arendelle. His name is Jack Frost, and he delights in snowy pranks and mischief."

The king's concern turned to anger. "How dare he?" he demanded.

"What does he want?" the queen asked.

The troll chief glanced around to make sure Jack was nowhere in earshot before he replied, "he actually means you no ill will. From what I've heard, he usually sticks to pranks that are mostly harmless. But he's a bad influence on the children. He teaches disobedience and recklessness. I would keep the children away from him if I were you."

"How can we stay away from him if we can't even see him?"

"You can't?" The elderly troll momentarily looked surprised. "Maybe he was hiding and working his magic from a distance?"

"Perhaps," the king allowed.

"Although I thought it seemed like the snowballs were being thrown from inside the room," the queen commented.

"I thought so at the time, but thinking back, I could see how everything might have come from the open window," the king said.

"I'm sorry, Elsa, but I guess we'll just have to keep your window closed to keep out this 'Jack Frost,'" the queen apologized.

"But I like the fresh air!" Elsa complained.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but it's for your own good," the queen said, a sad look on her face.

"You're doing the right thing," the troll leader said confidently. "I drove that rapscallion away as soon as I saw him; couldn't let him corrupt the little ones."

-

When they returned to the castle, Elsa was taken back to her room, and one of the servants was called in to lock up her window. She sadly watched him work, feeling the cool breeze come through the window for the last time. When he left, she stared outside longingly--she hadn't been confined to her room for very long, but it had still been nice to go outside for a little while. "Maybe I should pretend something weird and magical happened again so I would get to go outside," she thought. But she knew she wouldn't do that. She was a good girl; she wouldn't lie to her parents like that. Sighing quietly, she went to her rather extensive bookshelf, retrieved a book, and began reading.

After a few minutes, she heard a branch tapping at her window, but thought nothing of it and kept reading. She finished the paragraph she was reading and started looking at the picture on the next page when she heard the tapping again and realized there was something wrong with that. She didn't remember there being any trees next to the window in her new room!

-

Jack had been observing the meeting from high up a nearby mountain. When he saw the king and queen leave the clearing of the trolls, he let the breeze gently carry him down. Landing lightly in front of the old troll, he asked as innocently as he could manage, "So...what was that about?"

The old troll fumed at him, his cheeks turning a slightly darker shade of grey. "You stay away from that royal family! They have enough problems without you! And stay away from our young ones too!"

"Aww, why won't you tell me what's going on with them?" No response. "Oh well, I guess I'll be going then." With that, he lifted his staff and the breeze picked up, lifting him upward as if it were a strong gust propelling an umbrella.

Jack coasted in to a landing on some stones jutting out from the wall of the castle near Elsa's room. "Hmm. They're locking the windows. Wonder why," he muttered. When they left, he peered inside and saw Elsa looking glum before she settled down to read a book. Jack felt really bad for her, locked up and lonely, but what could he do? He couldn't even get inside. Finally, he decided to just draw intricate, pretty frost pictures on the outside of her window. That had really been a hit with the children ever since the invention of glass windows. He tapped his staff against the glass to get Elsa's attention, but she didn't look up, so he shrugged and just started creating frost images. When he tapped on the glass again, she glanced up at the window, a look of shock on her face. She jumped up and ran to the window, exclaiming, "What are you doing out there?" Jack jumped back off the wall in fright, and Elsa let out a shriek, thinking he was falling to his death. Realizing what he had done, he floated back up to the window level.

"Don't worry, I'm fine!"

There were stomping feet in the hallway. "Don't tell them I'm here. Please? I just want to talk. I won't even come inside, and I'll leave as soon as I'm done, I promise," Jack frantically whispered.

Contradictory thoughts whizzed around inside Elsa's little head. On the one hand, she couldn't see what harm Jack could do by talking, and they had locked the window to keep him outside. He was still outside, so it was okay, right? But Elsa also remembered that the funny-looking little old troll had said Jack would make her rebellious, and she was a good girl, so maybe she shouldn't talk to him.

In the end, Elsa didn't have time to think through her decision. "Elsa, are you alright?" Her mom asked, knocking on her door.

"Yes, mother, I'm fine," Elsa replied automatically. As her mom started to open the door, Elsa dove for the expensive furry mat in front of her bookshelf as quietly as she could and plucked a scary book off.

"Then what was that scream for?" Her mother asked, skeptical.

"It was just...this book startled me."

"Really, startled by a book? You do realize it's not real, don't you?" Her voice was equal parts condescending and tender.

"Yes, of course, but some books are so good I just forget for a moment."

"Oh, Elsa. You let me know if there ever is anything wrong, you hear me?"

"Yes, mother, of course." The queen left the room and shut the door. Elsa lay on the rug and pretended to read for a minute after she couldn't hear her mother's footsteps anymore, just to be safe. Of course, she was far too excited to actually read anything, even when she tried. Finally, she got to her feet, crept to the window, and knocked quietly on the glass. "What do you want?" She whispered.

Jack Frost floated up on the outside of the window. Elsa decided that he looked odd, as if he was extremely excited and outgoing, but also really shy. "You...you can see me? How?" He stammered in a whisper.

"Yes, why wouldn't I? You're flying!" Elsa put as much indignation in her voice as she could while still whispering.

"Not really. I'm just letting the wind carry me."

"The wind can't pick people up!"

"Well, normally people can't do this either." Jack held out his hand, and a snowball crystallized from a swirl of blue magic.

"It **was** you! I knew I wasn't doing it!"

"You people keep saying things like that. By any chance, can you do ice magic too?"

Elsa was reluctant to answer. Jack was clearly magical himself, and he had already figured out her secret, but she had been told not to tell anyone about her magic. Finally she relented. "Yes."

"Cool! Can you show me?"

Elsa suddenly shut down. She turned off her curious expression and backed away a half-step, holding her hands behind her back and looking down at the floor. "No."

"Aww, come on, why not?"

"I can't do magic any more."

"You can't, or you won't?"

"Leave me alone," she pouted.

"Okay, fine, I did say I would leave if you asked. So long." And with that, Jack floated off.

-

Now Jack was really curious. Someone could see him, AND she could do ice magic just like him! And what's more, she seemed to be able to remember her past, unlike him! Heck, she was still living it! Maybe she could help him figure out where he had come from. Still, he could tell he wasn't going to get any more out of her if he kept pushing her, so he decided to have fun in Arendelle just as he normally would in a town with a newly-fallen coat of snow. Maybe after a couple of days she would be more willing to open up. 


	2. Let it Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack gets Elsa to open up about her powers and helps her have some fun.

A couple days had passed since Elsa had talked to Jack, and now she almost wished he would come back. She was bored. Books were helpful to pass the time, but Elsa had always been an active child. Until recently, she had spent a good portion of her day playing outside with Anna, and now she was trapped in a small room with the door and window shut. It was enough to drive any child crazy, and on top of all that, Elsa had to keep her ice powers in check. So when Jack knocked at her window, she would have shouted in joy if she hadn't been afraid someone would come running. Instead, she whispered excitedly, "You're back!"

"Oh, you missed me, huh? I thought you didn't want to talk to rule-breaking old Jack anymore." Jack smiled.

"But it's so _boring_ in here," she whined.

"Then why don't you go outside?" Jack asked.

"I can't," Elsa said.

"Why not?"

Elsa almost closed up again, but she _was_ bored, and talking to Jack was something different, at least. "So nobody is afraid of me."

"Why would they be afraid of you?" Jack, being invisible to anyone who didn't believe in him, had never really had a problem with people being afraid of him.

"The troll told us fear would be my enemy."

"Oh, that old geezer? What does he know? He also thinks I'm a horrible troublemaker, when all I want to do is have a little fun."

Elsa got quiet. "He fixed my sister's mind." Elsa thought he must know what he was talking about if he was able to save her sister.

"Whaddya mean? What happened to her mind?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Jack gave her a skeptical look before sighing and looking at the light dusting of snow falling outside.

"What if..." Jack started to say and paused, thinking. "If you can't go out because people would be afraid, what if you went somewhere with no people?"

"How would I get out?"

"Same way I got in," Jack said in a tone that indicated how obvious he thought it was.

"But I can't fly!"

Jack smiled. "I could carry you." Elsa was hesitant, so Jack urged her, "come on, it's this or be stuck in your room all day." That did it; Elsa _was_ bored. Then she remembered something.

"But the window's locked."

"That's never stopped a prankster like me." Jack put his hand on the crack where the window swung open. Razor-thin ice spread in the minuscule gap between the window and frame. A thin coat of frost covered the inside of the window on a path to the thick metal chain that was tied around the latch. The ice progressed along the chain to the lock. A thick ice key formed inside the lock and hardened into a tough, dense crystal of ice, turning a darker shade of blue as it did so. There was a quiet crackle of the thin ice cracking as the ice key turned, unlocking the lock and letting the chain swing free. Elsa tugged the chain out of the way and quietly laid it down on the floor. Then, she unlatched the window and climbed up on the windowsill. After a moment's hesitation, she hugged Jack tightly around the waste, closed her eyes, and buried her head in his stomach.

"Ready," she called out with her muffled voice.

"Hey, stop crushing me," Jack choked out. "You don't need to hold that tightly."  He shifted his staff to his left hand and put his right arm around Elsa's shoulder. Relaxing just a little, she loosened her grip enough that it wasn't painful for him to breathe anymore. "There, that's better." He raised his staff slightly and they floated off the edge of the windowsill. "See, we're taking off, and you're still fine." Mindful of his passenger, Jack let the wind carry him at a sedate pace rather than indulging in the acrobatics he usually flew with. A light flurry of snowfall covered their flight.

They touched down in the forest with about a foot of day-old snow underfoot. As soon as her feet felt the snow on the ground, Elsa looked up, let go of Jack, and started gallivanting about. Jack finally noticed her bare feet sinking several inches into the snow. "Oh! I should go back and get you some boots." Elsa looked up at him, confused for a second.

"I don't need boots. I'm not scared of the cold."

"Hey, guess what. Me neither," Jack said with a chuckle. "Maybe that just comes with ice powers." But Elsa ignored his attempt to get her to open up in favor of running around, exploring the woods and chattering with excitement.

"This is so cool I can't believe I'm outside again, and playing in the snow, and I didn't even make the snow myself, and wait, did you make it?"

"No, this was an all-natural snowstorm. I had nothing to do with it." But Elsa had already stopped listening to him. She took her gloves off so she could feel the snow with her bare hands.

"I don't think I've been here before this is cool." She turned and fell backwards into the snow. "Snow angel!" Forgetting herself for a moment, she clapped her hands together and made a deformed snow...thing that was evidently a child's quick attempt at creating a snow angel out of nothing. Then she remembered she wasn't supposed to be using her powers and threw it on the ground, where it exploded in a cloud of snow. She started to look moody, so Jack threw a snowball at her, knocking her over. She scooped up some snow with her hands and threw it at Jack, who made no effort to dodge at all and got knocked over. Elsa laughed. "You're supposed to dodge, silly."

Jack laughed too. "I'm not used to people being able to see me. Bet you can't get me a second time." From his position on the ground, he threw another snowball at her and rolled to the side, jumping to his feet and running away before she could get him again. Turning, he tapped the snow between them with his staff, making a snowy berm as tall as Elsa for him to hide behind. Then he started throwing snowballs at Elsa, forming them in his hands so he could keep up a rapid rate of fire.

At first, Elsa had been having fun, but now she was just starting to get annoyed. "Hey, slow down! Not fair! Cut it out!" A snowball hit her in the face. She spat out some snow and yelled, "Stop it!" She threw her arm out, burying Jack under a berm of snow.

Elsa was immediately worried and sorry. She'd been hiding her powers all this time so she wouldn't hurt someone again, and the one time she'd lost her control, someone had ended up buried in snow! She ran forward and started to manually dig through the snow to get to Jack. The snow crunched as he dug himself out. "Jack! I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I'm sorry Jack, I'm sorry!"

Jack shook the snow off his face, and Elsa realized he was laughing. "It's not funny!" She pouted.

"I thought it was marvelous! Nobody's been able to beat ME at my own game for...well, for as long as I can remember."

"I thought I hurt you!"

"But, you didn't! Anyway, how could you hurt **me** with snow? Jack **Frost** , spirit of **winter**!" Jack retorted with a smile.

"But, but, well..." Elsa sputtered. "I'm not supposed to use my powers! Mama and Daddy said!"

"Oh, come on! Don't be such a square! Live a little!"

Elsa folded her arms and spun around to face away from Jack, declaring, "I'm not listening to you. I'm a good girl."

"Fine, then. I'll just have fun over here while you pout." Jack twirled his staff around, sending bursts of frost and snow to cover nearby trees and building up snow castles. To be honest, though, he was mostly just doing it to make Elsa jealous. He even made exaggerated declarations of just how much fun he was having. Elsa matched his stubbornness, refusing to even acknowledge him. Finally, Jack sighed dramatically. "Oh, well. If you're just going to sit there, I might as well just bring you back to the castle now."

That got Elsa's attention. "No, wait! I want to play! I just can't use any magic."

"You mean you _won't_ use any magic. There's a big difference there."

"No, I can't."

"Won't."

"Can't."

"Won't."

"Can't."

"Fine, you can't! Geez! Are we going to play in the snow now?" Jack was equal parts annoyed and happy that he had somebody to argue with, considering how much time he spent entirely on his own, even if it was an extremely silly, childish argument. Still, he avoided antagonizing Elsa for the moment.

They played for a while, but then Jack brought up the inevitable. "We should probably get back soon before somebody misses you."

"Aww. Can we do it again soon?"

"Sure, as long as nobody noticed this time."

"I bet they didn't," Elsa said. "They usually don't check up on me until lunch time, and breakfast wasn't that long ago. Well, Mama came to play with me in the morning last week, but she's really busy this week." Fortunately, Elsa was right, and they were able to return her to her room without being noticed.

\--

Jack came back several times over the next few days and spirited Elsa out of her room to play in the snow. There were a couple of times when someone else was in Elsa's room, and Jack had to come back later, and one time Elsa decided that they didn't have time to leave and get back in time for dinner, but they were lucky enough to avoid being found out.

After a while, though, Jack started to get bored, so one day after they landed in the snow, he said, "Elsa, it's been fun, but I've got places to go, things to do, other kids to play with and play pranks on."

"Aww, don't go! Then I'll be stuck in my room all the time!"

"Hey, I'm surprised you got me to stay in one place for this long! Besides, you still won't use your ice magic, or even tell me why you won't use it! Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?"

"I **said** I can't use my powers!" Elsa shot back, her voice raising a little. "Why won't you just leave me alone?"

Jack began to raise his voice a little as well. "Oh, first you want me to leave, now you want me to stay? Make up your mind, little snow-princess. Or should I say snow-less princess?"

"That's not what I meant!" Elsa shouted in frustration, her voice going shrill. "I just want you to stay but stop trying to make me use magic!"

"But why won't you use magic? It's a part of you, isn't it?"

"I keep saying, I can't!"

"Sure you can!" Now they were slightly quieter; instead of shouting the top of their lungs, they were just louder than normal.

"Nu-uh!"

"Yep! You totally can use magic! I've seen it! You're just afraid for some reason."

"I'm not...I just can't...I don't want to...arrrghh!" Elsa collapsed face-first in the snow and started to cry. At a loss for how to react—he had never talked to kids before, at least as for long as he could remember—Jack awkwardly paced around the area, twirling his staff. When Elsa finally started to quiet down, Jack lowered his staff to the ground and crouched down on one knee next to her. Speaking softly, he said, "Look, Elsa, I'm sorry for pushing you so much. I'll tell you what, just tell me why you won't use your magic and I'll stop bugging you about it."

Elsa rubbed snow in her face to clear away her tears, then rolled to a sitting position. "Ok. Fine." She paused. "I don't use magic because, well, the last time I used magic, I hurt Anna. She was jumping on pillars of ice, but she went too fast, and she almost fell before I could make another one, and I hit her head with a cold blast instead. It was weird, she was way more hurt than if she was just cold. We tried warming her up, but we couldn't get her to feel better, so we had to take her to the trolls, and they fixed her and made her forget about the magic."

Jack had the thought that maybe Elsa's magic was more dangerous than his. He'd only hurt someone with the cold from his snow before, not a direct interaction with his magic! And even then, he hadn't hurt people very often. Fortunately, he'd gotten better at his tendency to think out loud in the short time he'd actually had somebody to talk to, so he didn't just blurt this out.

Elsa was still talking. "The troll said that fear would be my enemy. He showed us an image of the future. It was awful! There was a huge group of angry people. So my mama and papa said I had to hide my magic, and they said I was going to stay in my room until we were sure I wouldn't mess up, use my magic, and, well, hurt Anna again." Her voice dropped to a whisper at the last part, and then she fell silent.               

Jack crossed his legs and sat down. "I've seen mobs like that. Never come after me, obviously, since nobody believes in me, but I've seen people going after 'witches.' Or at least, the mobs thought they were witches. I'm pretty sure most of them couldn't actually use magic. Anyways, I can see why you and your parents would be afraid of people finding out. But Elsa, it sounds like what happened to Anna was totally an accident. You can't beat yourself up for it!"

"But I have to make sure I don't hurt her again!"

"Yes, of course you don't want to hurt your sister again. Just be more careful! The world's dangerous, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything in it!"

"I don't want to hurt Anna again! I'm not gonna use my magic anywhere near her ever again!"

"Ok, alright, I get it. But really, that doesn't mean you should never use your magic! Who's going to get hurt if you just play a little out here with me? It's not like I can be hurt by the cold."

"Mama says I need to practice my control, and that's why I can't make snow even when I'm all alone."

"But how can you practice control if you never even let yourself do magic? I use my cold powers all the time, and have you ever seen me use magic without control?"

"Well, no," Elsa allowed, unsure.

"Exactly! Then there's no reason you can't have fun with your powers out here with me!"

"But I can't!"

"Elsa, are you scared to use your power?" She didn't reply. "Yes, I think that's it. That's the problem here. You're _scared_ to use ice magic again!" His voice got quieter, and he tried to imitate the tender tone he had heard parents use with their children after they got scraped up by slipping on ice. "Remember what the troll said. ‘Fear will be your enemy.' What if he meant your own fear, Elsa?"

"I guess...." She trailed off, before saying, with slightly more confidence, "I don't want to be afraid."

"So you agree with me then? There's no harm in you practicing your powers out here with me, right? You can't hurt me, and there's no one else here to be afraid of you."

"I think I want to talk to my parents first."

"But Elsa, you know they won't..."

"Don't worry, I won't tell them about you or this. I just want to ask them about me being afraid of my power."

"Oh, alright. Well, we've been out here long enough, we should probably get back soon anyway so nobody notices we're missing."

As Jack was carrying her back, Elsa spoke up, "Jack, if I use my magic, will you stay longer? Please?"

Jack said, "Well, I've already stayed here longer than I ever stay in one place."

"Oh." A small squeak. But Jack wasn’t done talking.

"But, I've never had a friend before. Sure, some of the other immortals are pretty cool, but they're all either loners or have their own friends. But you want to hang out with me for some reason, can't imagine why." He tickled her, and she giggled,

"No fair, not while you're carrying me!"

"So yeah, I think I can stay here for a while longer."

"Yay! Thank you, Jack!"

\--

An hour or two later, Elsa's dad, the king, came in to check on her. "How's my little princess doing?"

"Daddy!" She ran forward and hugged him.

"Elsa, I finally finished that king-stuff I was working on, so I thought I'd come by to check on you. Do you need anything? More books, maybe?"

"No, Daddy, I'm good, but I did have a question for you."

"What is it, Elsa?"

"You know how the troll said fear would be my enemy? Doesn't that mean we shouldn't be afraid of my snow either?"

"No, Elsa, we saw that vision he showed. He meant that people would be afraid of you, so you can't show them your magic."

 "Yes, Daddy, but couldn't he also mean I shouldn't be afraid of my magic? I think it might be easier to control my magic if you let me use it a little bit, just in here where no one sees me. Then I'll know what I shouldn't be doing anywhere else."

The king sighed. He didn't have any experience with magic, but he did have experience dealing with drunkards, compulsive gamblers, and others of his subjects with all manner of vices. One common thread he had noticed was that it was nearly always easier to convince someone not to start stealing or drinking or brawling by threatening them with fines or time in the castle's dungeon than it was to get someone to stop once they were used to doing it. He could only assume magic was the same way. "Elsa, I know it's tough to stop, but that's my fault for not putting a stop to it earlier. I should have realized the dangers before your sister got hurt. If you just try to never use your magic, and just try to be a normal girl, I'm sure you'll find it easier not to use your magic."

"Ok, Daddy. I guess I won't use my magic in here," Elsa said sadly.

"That's my girl."

\--

The next day, when Jack came to her window to take her off to play, Elsa greeted him with, "I'm going to use my magic!"

"So your talk with your parents went well, then?"

"Well, no," Elsa scrunched up her face and tilted her head down. "But my Daddy doesn't know about magic. He can't use it. So I'm going to use it out here, and I'm still not going to use it in my room in the castle."

Jack grinned at the resolve in her voice. "That's the spirit!" He extended a hand, and Elsa enthusiastically jumped into his hug, no longer afraid of him dropping her.


	3. Running Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sneaking out of the castle was never going to last long.

Only a few days after Elsa started using magic while playing with Jack, their string of luck ran out and one of the servants noticed when Elsa was gone. They quickly notified the king. As they returned to Elsa's room, the king demanded, "What do you mean, she's gone? Did she run away? Did someone take her? Or is she just hiding somewhere in the castle? Ugh, we'll have to search the whole thing ourselves. I miss having the castle fully staffed."

"My lord, there's something else," one of the servants added. "It was strange, the window was unlocked and open."

The king thought back to why the door had been locked in the first place. "Jack Frost! Don't bother searching, I think I know where she went. The trolls told me a spirit of winter named Jack Frost was haunting our castle. He must have taken her." They entered Elsa's room, and the king leaned out the window, looking at the ground far below. "They didn't say he could fly, but I guess it makes sense if he was messing with us through the open window." The king had thought that Jack must have been inside the room with them, invisible, but maybe the queen had been right, and Jack had been flying outside the window. "Bring two of my private guard," the king ordered his servant. "And have the Captain begin a search throughout the city and surrounding area, quietly. We don't want Jack to know that we are aware he took Elsa."

"Yes, your highness." The servant bowed and hurried off. When the two guards arrived, the king briefed them, and the three of them stood in the room in such a way that they couldn't be seen from the window until someone had entered.

Their legs became quite sore after a while, but the king was used to maintaining a regal posture, and the guards were expected to stand at attention for long periods of time, so they were all capable of standing ready in case Jack and Elsa came back.

Eventually, their patience paid off. Jack flew in the window carrying Elsa, both of them beaming. The king stepped in front of the window and demanded, "What are you doing with my daughter?" There was a moment of silent shock, and then several people started talking at once.

"Daddy, don't be mad."

"Uh, what? You can see me?"

"Sir, isn't that the princess?"

"There's nobody else here, sir."

"Silence!" The king ordered.

"Daddy, we were just playing in the snow."

"I said be silent, Elsa," he snapped, his voice stern.  "Now, Jack Frost, what do you think you're doing with my daughter?"

Still getting over his shock at yet another person being able to see him, Jack managed to stutter out, "She was getting cooped up in here, I just took her out to play in the snow a bit. And since I'm a snow spirit, I figured it would be good for her to play with someone she couldn't hurt or scare even if she messed up." He decided not to mention that they had specifically been going out for Elsa to use her magic; he didn't think the king would take that well.

Unfortunately, the king hadn't taken what he had said very well either. "You have no right to take my daughter from my castle without my consent," the king thundered. He raised a hand to forestall Elsa's protest. "Whether or not she wanted to go is irrelevant. We put that lock on the window for a reason. I am the **king,** and furthermore, her **father** , and my word is final. And I say that Elsa will stay in her room until she has convinced me that she can control her magic. Jack Frost, you troublemaker, get out of here! If I see you again, I'll have you thrown in the dungeon." 

He advanced threateningly, and Jack floated out the window, calling back, "No, you're doing it all wrong, keeping her from using magic isn't going to work." But the king refused to take his words to heart.

When Jack was gone, the king turned to the two guards in the room with him. "I meant what I said. If you see him again, throw him in the dungeon. I'm going to go inform the captain." He turned to walk out.

"Um, sir, that could be a problem," one guard tentatively said.

"What problem?" The king asked, turning to face them again.

"I didn't see anyone else, sir. Just you and the princess."

"Really?" The king looked to the other guard. "What about you?"

"I didn't see anyone else either, sir. Sorry, sir."

 The king was dumbfounded. "So...how did you think Elsa got in here through the window?"

"Uhm, magic?" The king just stared at his confused guards for a moment. Then Elsa spoke up.

"Daddy, he told me people can only see him when they believe in him."

The king said, "Let me get this straight. You two couldn't see him because you didn't believe in him? What, my word wasn't good enough for you?" Wisely recognizing that there was no correct answer here, the guards stayed silent. "Fine. I guess I'll tell the captain anyway. Maybe some of the guards will believe their king. Elsa, since we can't be sure, and since the lock on the window obviously wasn't good enough, I'm going to move you to a room with no windows. Guards, stay with her until another room is set up, and don't let her leave, especially not out the window." He left before Elsa could form any protests.

\---

Jack floated around Arendelle on a small snowstorm, thinking. He wasn't willing to leave Elsa alone. They had tried to make the king see reason—"just not using magic" was totally unnecessary in Jack's opinion, and he was never one to listen to authority. That left one course of action: it was time to break the princess out of the castle.

\---

Elsa was crying in the windowless room the king had assigned to her. In all respects it was a very nice room, decked out with nice carpeting, a fancy bookshelf loaded with books, and a lushly embroidered couch for her to curl up on as she sobbed. Not feeling very respectful of the king at the moment, she refused to look up when the door opened. Then she heard Jack's voice. "You want to get out of here for a while?"

Elsa looked up and sniffles. "Jack?"

He explained, "I was surprised, quite a few of the guards were able to see me, but it wasn't too hard to get past them. So, what do you say? Want to go somewhere where you can practice without having to worry about scaring or hurting anyone?"

"Well, I don't know..."

"Come on, Elsa, your dad's obviously afraid of your magic. You need to practice if you don't want to hurt anyone, and the troll said fear would be your enemy, so you should just get out of here for now."

Elsa was quiet for a minute, thinking. Then, she said, "But I don't want to run away from home."

"It won't be forever," Jack said. "Just long enough to prove that using your powers will help you control them."

"Well, okay," Elsa decided.

"Let's go then," Jack said, helping Elsa to her feet and practically dragging her to the dresser. "Quick, grab three or four changes of clothes. We'll wrap them up in here," he said, grabbing a blanket. "Quickly, the ice slick I lay down will only delay the guards for so long." Fortunately, Elsa was young enough that she wasn't too fussy about what she wore, so it didn't take her long to choose. Jack piled the clothes in the center of the blanket, rolled it up, and threw it over his shoulder. Then, he grabbed Elsa's hand and almost dragged her out into the hallway. "Let's go!" They ran out into the hall and saw a number of guards carefully walking toward them, one step at a time, across a thin layer of ice on the floor.

"There he is!"

"Stop!"

"Get away from the princess!"

Jack ignored the guards' shouting and asked Elsa, "How about some ice skating?" She looked at the hall in front of her and then turned back to Jack and nodded. Holding the rolled blanket and staff in one hand and gripping Elsa's hand with the other, Jack ran forward until they were both sliding gracefully across the ice. The various guards tried to grab them, but Jack ducked, dodged, and pulled Elsa out of their way until they were at the end of the hall. They ran up the staircase, leaving the guards lying on the floor behind them.

As they ran down another hallway towards the front, Elsa tugged on Jack's sleeve. "I need to say goodbye to Anna!"

"Elsa, there's no time."

"Jaaack!" Elsa whined. Some guards ran around the corner.

"Fine, we can go out the window just as well as the front door." They ran down a hall and up another staircase towards Anna's room.

\---

Anna had been aimlessly wandering the halls of the castle, wondering what to do, when she heard a bunch of people shouting. Curious, she scampered toward the sound until she encountered a number of guards. One of them turned to her. "Princess! Let's get you safe in your room." He ushered her into her bedroom, not bothering to explain that he didn't really know what was going on much more than she did. Closing the door, he ordered, "Now stay inside until we're sure you are safe."

Inside, Anna bounced around in excitement. She wasn't really worried, since she had the guards to protect her, so she was just curious what exciting thing was breaking up the loneliness and boredom of life in the castle. After some time, she heard the noise get slightly closer. Then, she heard Elsa shouting her name. She shouted back, "Elsa?" The guard outside her room shouted,

"Hey, stop!" Then Elsa heard a "thunk" and the guard saying, "Ow!" The door opened and Elsa ran in.

"Elsa! What's going on?"

"Anna! I'm leaving for a little while, but don't worry! I'll be back, I promise!" Then, Elsa ran towards the window.

"Elsa, wait! Where are you going?" Anna ran after her, but Elsa jumped out of the window and flew away.


	4. Out of the Wild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some time in the wild was good for Elsa, but it was never going to last forever.

**Two Years Later**

 

A small rabbit hopped on the snow. It turned its nose up and sniffed the air. Smelling something suspicious, it started to hop away, but as soon as it had gotten two steps, it was suddenly surrounded in a cage made of bars of ice that had sprung up from the snow. "Go fetch it," a girl's voice said. Then, the rabbit saw a strange shiny creature it had never seen before—a tiny thing twice the rabbit's height made of snowballs and carrying an icicle in one hand. The light brilliantly glinting off of the tip of the icicle was the last thing the rabbit saw.

....

Jack lounged on a snowy berm near a crackling fire. He wasn't bothered by the cold, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy a nice fire. Two broken tree branches were stuck in the snow, with a stick with the skinned rabbit on it stretched between the branches. The stick extended away from the fire in one direction until it was far enough away for a snow golem the size of a large Arendelle guard to safely turn the stick without melting. "Hey, Elsa! Looks like the rabbit's almost done," Jack called. Elsa looked up from where she was playing with Olaf, the first living snowman she had made, and ran over to the fire.

"Ooh, it smells good! Oh, and you found berries! Thank you!" Elsa ran forward to look at the rabbit. "Yeah, it looks done." The wind shifted, and she sputtered in the smoke from the fire. With a small blast of ice from her hands, the fire went out. Elsa turned indignantly to glare. "Jaaack," she whined.

"It wasn't me. Honest," he said, smiling. She glared a second longer before smiling herself and turning around to grab the spit with the rabbit on it.

"Albert, can you cut up this rabbit for me?" Elsa asked. The little snowman who retrieved the rabbit earlier walked up to her and looked up. "Here you go." She pulled the rabbit off the spit and handed it to him. Then she made a hard ice shelf in the snow on the ground to use as a cutting board and formed a sharp, serrated knife and handed that to him as well. Albert quickly got to work cutting up the rabbit.

Named after Elsa's favorite chef back at the castle, Albert had been created to handle all the icky parts of preparing meat to eat so Elsa didn't have to. Jack didn't need to eat, so he had no experience hunting or cleaning food. This meant Elsa had to do all her own cleaning and cooking for the first year and a half after they left Arendelle. She didn't have any experience hunting either, but Jack was really lazy, so he refused to do any more than help when she needed it. Of course, as soon as she could, she made Albert so she wouldn't have to do it herself anymore.

Albert shattered the ice knife against the ice block to signal that dinner was ready. "Thank you, Albert." Elsa picked up the ice block, dropping ice from it to turn it into a plate. Then she walked over to a bowl of ice Jack had made, transferred several handfuls of berries from the bowl to her plate, and started munching.

After a couple of minutes of small talk, Elsa said, "I think I want to go back home. It's been really fun, but I miss my family, and the castle, and Arendelle, and just...everything. It's just...do you think they'll take me back?"

"Well, Elsa, you're controlling your power pretty well now, you probably won't have trouble hiding it when you need to. I don't know if they'll let you use magic around anyone else. Your dad was pretty insistent on you not using magic."

Elsa frowned. "Oh. And they probably won't like Olaf or Albert or Erak. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't go back."

Jack thought for a second. "You know what? I'll go back by myself and make sure he lets you use magic and see your snowmen when you go back. I don't think they'll let you bring the snowmen into the castle since there'd be no way to hide them."

"Would you? Thank you, Jack."

....

The king of Arendelle was retiring to bed when he heard someone knocking on his window. Alarmed, he ran over to the window. Opening it, he hissed, "Jack Frost. You're not here to steal my other daughter, are you?"

Jack raised his hands in a position of surrender. "No, no, actually I was planning on bringing her back."

"Really? Where is she? How far away?" The king asked eagerly.

"Whoa, hold on there," Jack said. "I've got a few requests first."

The king's countenance darkened. "What do you want?"

Jack saw the king's scowl and verbally backpedaled. "No, no, nothing for me. I don't want money or anything. I just want you to let Elsa use her magic."

The king immediately replied, "No. Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"It's dangerous."

"It's also beautiful." Jack tapped his staff against the wall and spread an exquisite design of frost on the wall. "You have to admit that there's something really beautiful about the frost patterns I make, and Elsa, she's even better. Some of the things she makes are amazing, and she's only getting stronger."

"Look, if Elsa can't control her magic, it's too dangerous to let her play with Anna or interact too much with others. I don't want a worse accident to happen, and if her power is stronger now? Too dangerous."

"Elsa told me what happened with Anna, and it wasn't Elsa's fault, and she's been practicing, so it won't happen again."

"You can't know that. Accidents happen, and I won't let Anna be hurt."

"What about Elsa? I know you love both of your daughters. Leaving for a while has been good for Elsa, but she needs to come home. Her power is a part of her. You can't just keep her from using it entirely; that's like asking her not to use one leg or something. Sure, I get that people might be scared of her, but you shouldn't be! You're her father! You should know she's not some evil witch!"

"Of course I know that!"

"Then why are you afraid of her magic? Why are you afraid of her?" The king was quiet for a few seconds, so Jack continued, "Let's treat this like a negotiation. Elsa will come back, but only if you make a few concessions. So far you haven't made any. What are you going to change your mind on?"

The king sighed.  "Fine. You have a point. I'll let Elsa use her magic, but only in the castle around people we can trust, and I'm not letting her use magic near Anna. Are you sure she can control it enough not to use it when she's not supposed to?"

"Yes, Elsa's had enough practice that she should have no problem with accidental magic. She only uses it when she wants to." Truthfully, Jack didn't know how good Elsa would be at avoiding using magic for long periods of time, since she hadn't had any reason to stop for that long, but in his mind this was just another reason she should be allowed to use magic all the time, not a problem. At any rate, he wasn't going to tell the king that. Instead, he asked, "Could you allow Elsa to play and practice her magic outside the city at least once a week? There will be much more she can do there, where it's safer and there are fewer people, and she's been living out there with me for so long I'm afraid she'll get claustrophobic if you lock her up in the castle." Jack's real reason for asking was so Elsa could see Olaf, Albert, and Erak. He didn't bring them up himself since he was afraid the king would react poorly, and he wanted Elsa to be able to tell her father about them when the time was right.

The king considered the request. "I guess that seems reasonable. But I'm sending her with a guard of trustworthy soldiers."

"Fair, fair."

"I've acquiesced to your requests. Now where is she?"

"Actually, there is one more thing."

"What?" The king barked out.

"I want to be able to visit her. Elsa's my only friend. I'll miss her." Once again, the king paused before speaking. Then, his face took on a sympathetic expression for the first time Jack had seen.

"Very well; that is acceptable. But no more flying in her window. You can come in the front gate like a normal guest."

Jack smiled and gave a bow. "Thank you, your Majesty. I'll go get Elsa now. We should be back before sundown."

....

After Elsa and her parents had a tearful reunion, the king said, "Elsa, would you like to go see Anna now?" Elsa shrunk in on herself, nervous. She hadn't seen Anna for two years, and before that she had just stopped talking to her and playing with her with no explanation. Would Anna be mad at her? "Elsa?" The queen asked.

"Yes, let's go see her." She followed her parents nervously as they walked through the halls of the castle. They got to a room where Anna was learning from a tutor. Elsa and the king waited in the hallway while the queen went in.

"Gerda, Anna can be done with her lesson for the day. There's someone here she should see."

"Very well, your majesty." Gerda finished up what she had been explaining when the queen walked in, collected her things, and left.

"Who's here, Mama?" Anna asked excitedly.

The queen smiled. "You'll see. You can come in now." Elsa shyly stepped around the corner.

"Elsa!" Anna exclaimed. She ran forward and glomped Elsa with a big hug. Elsa tensed up at first. Then she relaxed into the hug and hugged Anna back. Anna let go. "You came back! I knew you were telling the truth! Where have you been? Can I see you fly again?" Elsa was momentarily stunned by her energetic little sister, but she smiled, glad that Anna was the same sunny girl she remembered, and started to explain that no, she couldn't actually fly, she just had an invisible friend who could fly and who was carrying her. They chatted for a while before Anna asked, "Ooh, Elsa, do you want to build a snowman?"

Elsa looked up at their parents. The king nodded slightly. Elsa smiled. "I'd love to."

It was pretty weird for Elsa to make a snowman by hand after making snowmen magically for so long, but it was still a lot of fun, and when they were done playing, her parents took her aside and told her that she had shown enough control that they were going to let her play with Anna again in the future.


End file.
